


The Floor is Lava

by ladivvinatravestia



Series: Drifting, Falling [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Avengers Movie Night, Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Fade to Black, M/M, Multi, Pining, Platonic Flirting, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Puns & Word Play, Tribbles (Star Trek), Wakanda (Marvel), fully automated luxury gay space communism, oh no there was only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-25 07:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21352321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladivvinatravestia/pseuds/ladivvinatravestia
Summary: TheAvenger’snext mission is to transport a group of Horta artists to Wakanda.  Bucky’s next mission is to figure out how to work with all of the people he last saw while he was shooting at them.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Series: Drifting, Falling [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1383001
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is finished and will be posted in three instalments. The next chapter will go up on Monday and the final chapter on Thursday.
> 
> Steve, Sam, Bucky, and Clint have only one brain cell among them, and each one thinks they are the one that has the brain cell at all times. In fact, it’s usually Natasha who has the brain cell.
> 
> Thanks to [falashad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falashad/profile) for the beta.
> 
> Written for Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019 square U2, “Floor is Lava” and square C4 “sharing a bed”
> 
> Additional warnings: Bucky experiences physical symptoms of anxiety; characters discuss the Winter Soldier’s assassination of Howard and Maria Stark; off-screen animal death (tribbles)

His first morning on board the _Avenger_, Bucky eats his breakfast in his quarters as he reviews his orders and the files on his fellow engineers.A variety of lieutenants, including an android, all with solid CVs; two cadets who look like they’re about twelve years old, not that Bucky had been much more than a kid when he served aboard the USS _Howling Commando_; department head Commander Tony Stark.

The bottom drops out of Bucky’s stomach and he starts to feel dizzy, his vision graying out at the sides.He grabs the edge of his desk and puts his head between his legs, trying to get his breathing and heart rate under control.

No.There’s no way he can do this.Serving with people he shot at is one thing but serving with the orphaned son of his two highest-profile victims is simply not possible.

Still shaking, Bucky pulls on his uniform, pulls his hair back into a hasty bun, and heads straight to Engineering, composing his resignation letter on his PADD as he goes.It’s not until he bursts out of the turbolift onto the Engineering deck that it occurs to him that Commander Stark might not be there at 0830 hours.

But, and damn Bucky’s luck, there Commander Stark is, leaning over a hologram on the design table, his uniform jacket discarded over a nearby chair and his hair sticking up in all directions.Twentieth-century Earth music blasts out of the deck’s speakers.By Stark’s side, a red-and-grey-skinned humanoid hovers solicitously.

“Sir, may I remind you that you have not slept in thirty-six hours,” he says.

“Yeah, and when was that last time _you_ slept?” Stark fires back.

“As you are well aware, sir, I do not require sleep,” replies the man, and Bucky reasons he must be the android, Vision.

Stark looks up from the table, and he has an actual smudge of grease across his cheek.

“Oh, hey, you must be Barnes,” he says, “Back me up here.”

“Actually, uh,” Bucky starts.He should have thought through what he would do if there were other officers around when he went to tender his resignation.“Could I speak to you privately for a minute, sir?”

“Oh no, what did I do now?” asks Stark, looking comically alarmed.

Bucky takes a deep breath.There’s obviously no graceful way to do this, but once he resigns then it won’t matter what his would-be coworkers think of him.“I’d like to resign my post, sir,” he says, handing his PADD over to Stark.

Stark’s mouth gapes open for a few moments like a fish.“Look, I know I have a reputation for being hard to work with, but you haven’t even given me a chance,” he says.

“Sir, I -” begins Bucky.He’d practiced a variety of speeches in his head but of course he can’t bring any of them to mind now.“No, it’s you who won’t want to work with me.”

“Is this because of the whole,” asks Stark, making a series of gestures that seem to encompass Bucky’s whole person.Out of the corner of Bucky’s eye, he can see Vision quietly excusing himself from the room.

“Because I killed your parents,” says Bucky, not making any attempt to excuse or soften his past actions.He remembers it vividly, watching as in a nightmare while he set the charges that had blown up the Starks’ yacht as they pulled out of Starbase 91.

Stark makes a face, but he doesn’t recoil in anger like Bucky had expected him to.“Really?” he asks.“Because I read the files and it looked to me like Obadiah Stane and the Romulans he was in bed with were responsible.”

“But I did it,” Bucky persists.His therapists with Starfleet worked hard on getting him to accept that nothing that happened while he was parasitized by the Bluegill was his fault.It’s one thing for him to accept that in the abstract, but quite another to convince himself of its truth when faced with the son of his victims.

Stark runs his hands through his hair, which only makes it stick up even more.“Listen,” he says, “I did a bunch of things I’m not so proud of, either.And I didn’t even have a parasite making the decisions for me.”Bucky nods to indicate he’s listening, so Stark continues.“I didn’t just accept Steve’s recommendation without looking into your service record for myself, and you wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could serve with you.So I guess you can resign if you really feel you have to, but -”

There is a sudden clattering noise and a cry of, “Watch out, Mr. Stark!” and before Bucky can really think about it he’s stepped in between Stark and the source of the noise and assumed a defensive posture.

The source of the noise and the warning, one of the department’s young cadets, suddenly drops from the overhead walkway, landing deftly on the railing surrounding the warp core and jumping from there to the surface of the nearest work station.

“Watch out, Mr. Stark, the floor is lava!” he exclaims, before vaulting over Bucky and Stark’s heads to get to the central work station.

The reasoning part of Bucky’s brain tells him that the floor is no such thing, but he’s still in combat mode and the next thing he knows, he’s vaulted up onto the central work station, bringing Stark with him.At the same time, a second cadet drops from the overhead walkway but fails to land on the railing, falling instead to the floor and dying a dramatic fake death.

The situation must not be too truly life-threatening because Stark gives Bucky an appreciative pat on the ass before letting him go.Bucky glances at him and he shrugs unrepentantly, and it is, of course, at this moment that the turbolift opens to admit Steve.

“Watch out, Mr. Captain Rogers, sir, the floor is lava!” exclaims the cadet on the work station.Both cadets look similar but Bucky thinks that this one is Parker and the other one is Keener.Steve looks startled but dutifully sits in the nearest chair, drawing up his legs.

“Tony, is everything under control here?” he asks.

“Yeah, sure,” says Stark, sitting down on the work station’s surface, “everything’s fine.I think?Everything’s fine, right, kids?FRIDAY?”

“The floor is not lava, sir,” says a lightly-accented feminine voice that Bucky realizes must belong to the ship’s computer - also, according to the files he read, an enhanced artificial intelligence given life by Stark.

“Well, that’s a relief,” says Steve.

Keener recovers from his fake death and sits up.

Steve continues, “Tony, does that mean you have time to come to the briefing this morning?”

“Oh shit, was that this morning?” Stark asks.Stark and Steve stare at each other like this is a well-trodden argument and then Steve gestures to the turbolift.

As Stark is heading to the turbolift, Steve gets off the chair to come over to the work station, where Bucky is now sitting down.

“Buck?” he asks.“You settling in okay here?”

“Sure,” lies Bucky.He assumes the briefing will be about whatever the _Avenger_’s next mission is, which gives him a few more hours at most to decide whether he really wants to resign his post, as he’d been prepared to do earlier, or whether he thinks he can actually fit in with the ship’s Engineering staff.

~~

The briefing goes well and soon Steve’s department heads are dispersing for their respective work spaces, ready to brief their own staff about the _Avenger_’s new mission to transport a group of artists and their families from Janus VI to Wakanda, where they’ve been commissioned to sculpt new monumental images of the Wakandans’ traditional deity and ancestral spirits just outside of the capital.As he’s walking with Tony to the turbolift, Steve wonders if there’s a way to invite himself down to Engineering again without being too obvious about his hopes of seeing Bucky, but then Tony says,

“Hey, you might want to come down and talk to your boy.”

Steve can’t get any further information out of Tony in the turbolift and is prepared for all sorts of potential catastrophes, but when they emerge in Engineering, Bucky is busy studying a schematic of Tony’s experimental upgrades to the warp drive while Vision, Peter, and Harley give him animated explanations of the drive and, apparently, the love lives of the entire department.Peter is hanging upside down from a bulkhead.

They all look up when Tony and Steve exit the turbolift and Bucky offers Steve a tentative smile.Peter somersaults down off the bulkhead to land on his feet with the grace of an acrobat.

“We good here?” Tony demands, and then without waiting for an answer he continues, “because I’m going to need the best engineering team I can get to help me design temporary living quarters for a group of Hortas and I can’t think of anybody better than the four of you.”

Bucky looks surprised, Harley looks intrigued, and Peter, as always, looks faintly guilty.Vision merely says,

“Very good, sir.Can I assume you will be giving us a full briefing after you’ve had eight hours of sleep?”

Now it’s Tony’s turn to look faintly guilty, and with good reason.

“Tony,” Steve begins in warning tones.

“Traitor,” mutters Tony, wagging a finger at Vision, but he makes for the turbolift, walking backwards.As he goes he says to his team, “Look up all the data onJanus VI’satmospheric, surface, and subsurface conditions and we can talk about how we’re going to do it this afternoon.”

Even before he enters the turbolift Harley and Peter have begun chattering excitedly, but Bucky stands up and makes his way over to Steve.At first Steve thinks he must be moving so carefully because he’s sore or recovering from an injury he sustained on his mission in Orion space, but then he thinks of the tightly-coiled, graceful menace Bucky had been carrying himself with even yesterday and wonders if, instead, Bucky is trying to look non-threatening.Either way,

“Everything okay?” Steve asks him quietly.

Bucky’s face clouds over.“You could have told me that my department head was the guy whose parents I murdered,” he mutters.

Steve opens his mouth to defend himself and then closes it again.It had occurred to him that this might be a problem, even though Bucky hadn’t been exercising his own free will when the Starks’ yacht blew up.But instead of trying to come up with a resolution, he’d just sort of hoped the issue wouldn’t come up.

“Sorry,” he says.Selfishly, he doesn’t offer Bucky the option of a transfer to another ship.He loves all of his new crew members as friends and family, and there’s nothing wrong with the 24th century, but Bucky is the only person he has left that actually reminds him of home.And while he’s perfectly aware that neither he nor Bucky are the same people they were when they served together on the _Howling Commando_, well, maybe they can at least rekindle their friendship.

Steve spends most of the rest of his shift beating himself up over having been too selfish.Maybe it would have been better for Bucky if Steve had left him to pursue his own opportunities instead of pulling so many strings to ensure they could serve together again.Well, he can’t change what he’s already done, but he can go back down to Engineering, apologize to Bucky again, and offer him a transfer.With a commendation.

Neither Sam nor Natasha are telepathic but when Steve tells them he’ll be in Engineering if they need him, they both give him that look he’s seen on their faces so many times since they discovered Bucky was still alive, the one that means they think he’s letting his feelings for Bucky cloud his judgment.Which makes Steve feel doubly selfish - Sam and Natasha are his friends as well as his officers, and is he still spending enough time with them?

Sam has often teased Steve about his ability to give motivational speeches about the Federation and its values, asking if Steve practiced them or wrote them out first.The truth is, it’s easy for Steve to find motivational things to say to his coworkers and crew.He wishes it was as easy for him to find things to say in tricky social situations, but unfortunately his talents just don’t go that way.In fact, he’s so busy imagining all of the ways his next conversation with Bucky will go badly that when he steps out of the turbolift in Engineering he barely stops himself from physically colliding with Bucky, who has been waiting for the turbolift to arrive.

Bucky looks just as startled as Steve feels, and they make awkward apologies to each other as they catch their balance.

“So, um,” says Steve, avoiding eye contact and rubbing the back of his neck.

At the same time, Bucky says, “Listen, I -” and then cuts himself off.They look awkwardly at each other again and Steve shoves his hands in his pants pockets.

“I should have asked before,” Steve starts again, “do you want me to sign your transfer orders?”

Bucky lets out a long slow breath and crosses his arms tightly across his chest.“Do you want me to transfer?” he asks.

Steve is uncomfortably aware that Bucky spent most of the last seventy years having all of his choices made for him.“Do you want to transfer?” he asks.

“_Steve_,” says Bucky impatiently.

“No,” blurts Steve, “please.”Oops.Did that come out too desperate?As Steve is trying to decide how to back-pedal, Bucky interrupts with,

“Okay, good.Because the kids and I just spent the whole shift designing specs for our new passengers’ living quarters and I’d kind of like to stick around to see whether they like them.”

~~

Bucky is glad that Steve offered him the option of transferring, but in between brainstorming with Peter and Harley about how to build the Horta environment, he’s had time to think about what he really wants.Sure, it’s going to be a little awkward at first, working with people he last faced as the Winter Soldier, but they’ve all told him they’re willing to give him a chance.What if he transfers to a different ship, or out of Starfleet, and finds that whoever he has to interact with is not prepared to be as forgiving or understanding?Besides, life in Tony Stark’s engineering department sounds fun and challenging, and working with a couple of cutting-edge artificial intelligences is bound to be a great experience.Also, Steve is here, though Bucky is trying not to base his decisions based only on a romance that might or might not happen.

As Bucky is ending his shift, he gets a notification from someone named Darcy Lewis:

_You are cordially invited to Avenger Movie Night: Janus VI Edition_.

A second notification gives the time and deck location.When he’s back at his quarters, Bucky knocks on the door between the shared bathroom and Clint’s quarters, determined to get more information about the movie night before he shows up.

“Uhh, just a minute,” Clint calls through the door.Bucky can hear some rapid shuffling around and slamming of drawers before Clint opens the bathroom door, looking disheveled.

“What’s the dress code for movie night?” Bucky asks.

“Oh, uh, anything goes really,” Clint replies.There’s a chittering noise and a tribble rolls around the corner and into the bathroom.“Goddamnit,” swears Clint, making a grab for the tribble.

“Shit, I thought we got all of those!” Bucky says.He and Clint had agreed that they really didn’t like having to kill cute animals, but complete elimination seemed to be the only effective method of pest control with the tribbles.

Clint picks up the tribble and strokes it, eliciting a purring noise.“I’ll get this one later,” he promises, letting the bathroom door close as he retreats into his quarters.

~~

Bucky passed an extensive psychological evaluation before being reinstated to active Starfleet duty, and his performance on the extraction mission from Orion space was commendable, but that doesn’t mean Natasha is ready to fully trust him just yet.She’s the _Avenger_’s chief of security after all, which means it’s her obligation to evaluate threats to the ship and her crew from within and without.True, the biggest threat Bucky seems to pose is to Steve’s heart, but Natasha won’t feel that she’s done a thorough job until she’s gotten to know him a little better.

Also, Bucky’s quarters adjoin Clint’s, and Clint almost definitely smuggled at least one tribble aboard from the _Milano_.

When Bucky opens the door to let Natasha into his quarters, he’s still wearing his uniform trousers and undershirt, and his hair is a disaster.She lets him register her critical expression before stepping past him to look through his closet.She quickly discovers that, unlike Steve, he has actually managed to update his wardrobe in the last 70 years and his sense of style is quite good, but of course it won’t do to let him know that.

After making some noises of disapproval, she chooses dark skinny trousers and a soft gray-blue v-neck pullover that will bring out the color of his eyes, and gestures for him to get changed in the bathroom.While he’s doing so, she replicates a Centauri-style silk scarf that should tie the whole look together.

When she takes up his hairbrush and indicates for him to have a seat on the edge of his bed, he grumbles.

“Do you take this much of an interest in all of your new crewmates?” he asks.

“Only the ones who want to date my Captain,” she says, affecting an air of innocence.

Bucky drops his head forward, undoing all the progress she’s made so far on styling his hair.“I’m not - ,” he sighs.“I don’t - “

“I left Orion for the Federation twelve years ago,” says Natasha.

“Yeah?” asks Bucky, raising his head.He looks her in the eye in the mirror, smiling, and it’s clear he hopes she’s changing the topic.

“Yes, and I still don’t understand why humans feel the need to pretend they have no sexual or romantic interest in a potential partner until they are actually in a relationship with that person,” she continues instead.

Bucky groans and drops his head again.

“Hey are you guys in there?” shouts Clint from the bathroom.“Can I come in?”

“Yes please,” says Bucky feelingly.

Natasha leans forward to see if she can catch a glimpse of Clint’s quarters and the tribble population thereof, but her view is obscured by Clint himself, who turns a pirouette as he comes through the doorway.

“Do I look okay?” he asks.He’s wearing a short-sleeved purple undershirt and track pants and there’s a bandage on his chin.

“No,” say Natasha and Bucky in unison.

~~

Other Starfleet ships have Counsellors, or bartenders, or cooks.The _Avenger_ has Darcy Lewis.Sam and Steve had sat down once, not long after the _Avenger_’s shakedown cruise, to go through the crew roster and make sure they could put a name to every face.Darcy’s name had not appeared on the staff list for any department, but there was no question that she’d been indispensable in keeping the scientists and engineers focused and caffeinated during the succession crisis on Asgard and subsequent attempted Chitauri invasion.They’d silently agreed not to raise any objections to her continued presence on board the _Avenger_, and since Natasha, in her role as Chief of Security, hasn’t seen fit to have her removed, here she still is.And, seemingly consequently, the _Avenger_ has social activities and a level of crew camaraderie that are the envy of the fleet.

Word of the _Avenger_’s next mission has spread quickly among the crew, and the movie night guests are buzzing with excitement when Sam arrives on the main recreation deck.Darcy greets him with a hug and then immediately presses him into service ferrying dishes from the food replicator to the buffet table.

“We can’t have any Horta cuisine, unfortunately, because it’s not biocompatible for humanoids, so I’ve just programmed up a bunch of everybody’s favourites,” she explains.“But we’re going to try watching a couple of movies FRIDAY told me are considered part of the Horta cinematic canon.”

After he’s filled his plate from the buffet table, Sam heads up to the couch in the back row that he usually shares with Steve.He’s just spreading his wings out comfortably over the back of the couch when it occurs to him that maybe Steve will want to share the couch with Barnes instead.He sighs, letting himself sink further into the couch.Steve is his best friend.He can’t grudge him the opportunity to reconnect with his original best friend.Or old flame, or whatever.

Well.

He can and does feel a little resentful and jealous.He just knows that he shouldn’t, and not just because some people at home on Gennaia would frown heavily on him forming a new relationship now that Riley is gone.He makes himself a promise that he won’t get in the way, and that he will be a good and supportive friend.

He’s just gathering the mental energy to get himself off the couch and go find another seat when Steve makes his way over, his plate loaded to overflowing.He sits down next to Sam, bumps shoulders with him, and pops a pakora into his mouth.

Sam scans the room.Barnes has arrived with Natasha and Clint, who are introducing him to other members of the senior staff and the cadre of cadets.

“Mmmm-mmm-muh?” says Steve with his mouth full, and Sam, sadly, knows him well enough to understand that he’s asking what shows they will be screening tonight.Sam pulls up Darcy’s invite on his PADD and reads,

“Legacy of the Molecular Listener.In an empire of lies, in an era of warfare, eight philosophers seek a mysterious artifact.Huh.”

“Sounds interesting,” Steve says, an optimistic expression on his face.

Sam has his reservations, but for the moment those take lower priority than Barnes, who now stands in front of the couch, looking much like he has been unwittingly steered there by Natasha and Clint.Alright, this looks like his cue to leave.

But when he moves to stand up from the couch, Steve turns to him and puts a hand on his leg.“Wait, where are you going?” he asks.“There’s enough room for all three of us here, shove over.”He looks a bit pink about the ears but Sam decides he doesn’t need to draw attention to that fact.“Only if you want, though,” Steve adds, looking up at Barnes.

Barnes looks daggers at Natasha but sits down, and she vanishes back into the crowd.There’s an awkward silence for a moment, and then Sam, Steve, and Barnes - no, he’d better start thinking of him as Bucky - all start to speak at once.They stop, looking at each other, and Steve gets pinker, but then before any of them can try again, Tony Stark is leaning over the back of the couch between Steve and Bucky.

“Now before you ask, yes, I did get a whole eight hours of sleep -” he begins.

“Tony,” Steve interrupts.

“Okay, four,” Tony corrects impatiently.“Anyway I was looking at the designs you and the kids made for our guests, and I think they’re great but we’re thinking too small.I’m thinking, what if we - hey, is that tolik fruit?”And he picks one of the Vulcan canapés right off Steve’s plate and shoves it into his mouth in one bite.

~~

An hour or so into the Horta cinematic classic, Sam has spread out one wing along the back of the couch so Tony can’t drop by to steal more food, and the assembled crew members are forced to concede that Horta pop culture is perhaps just a little too opaque for humanoids to appreciate.Instead, Darcy is able to queue up a cheesy docudrama with low production values purporting to be a portrayal of the initial mission of the _Enterprise_ to Janus VI under Captain James T. Kirk.It’s enjoyably terrible and everyone ends the evening in high spirits, with several people who don’t have the day shift the next day opting to stay and watch several more episodes of the docudrama.

Since Bucky is working the day shift the next day, he says his farewells to the group and makes for the turbo lift.Steve comes up with some kind of excuse to accompany him, which Bucky is happy to indulge, until Stark points an accusing finger at Steve and says, loud enough that the entire room must have heard,

“Don’t wear him out too much, I need him in good shape to start habitat modifications tomorrow.”

Steve goes bright pink and says, “Tony, it’s not - we’re not -”

Mercifully, the turbolift arrives just then and Bucky hauls Steve into it, punching the door close button.

“I’m really sorry about Tony,” Steve mutters.He’s still pink and he won’t make eye contact with Bucky.“He’s just trying to help, or something.”

“I’m sorry that -” Bucky begins.How is he supposed to phrase this without laying all his feelings bare?_Sorry that my crush on you is so obvious that everyone is teasing us about it_?_Sorry that I’m getting in the way of your existing relationship with Sam?_

“Captain Rogers, Commander Barnes, did you have a destination in mind this evening?” interrupts FRIDAY, making Steve and Bucky both jump.

“What?” Bucky asks intelligently.

“Or were you just planning to stay in a stationary turbolift all evening not talking about your feelings?” FRIDAY continues sweetly.

Okay, working with cutting-edge artificial intelligences is clearly the worst experience.

“Deck Ten, please,” says Steve, sounding defeated.

There’s an awkward silence for the rest of the turbolift ride, but it doesn’t last long, and by the time they’ve reached Bucky’s quarters, they’re joking about the production values of the docudrama and debating the veracity of the Enterprise’s official mission logs.Jim Kirk and his crew had been retired, but living legends when Steve and Bucky were boys; in the 24th century enough of the galaxy has been explored and scientifically catalogued that some of the original Enterprise’s exploits seem a bit far-fetched.

“Some of it’s real, though,” Bucky points out.“Hortas are real.”

“That’s true,” Steve agrees, just as Clint comes around the corner of the corridor, clutching at something in his shirt.

He looks up, startled, and says, “Oh, Cap, I didn’t know you’d still be here.”

“Well,” says Steve, casting his eyes downwards and rubbing the back of his neck.

He starts to look suspiciously pink around the ears, but then the something in Clint’s shirt moves, Clint mutters, “Shit,” and then a handful of tribbles goes skittering across the corridor floor.

“And tribbles are real,” Steve remarks, looking Clint squarely in the eye.

“Yeah, sir, sorry, sir, I’ll deal with them,” says Clint, not returning the eye contact, and he crouches down to pick up the escaping tribbles.

“See that you do,” says Steve, but his commanding tone is at direct odds with the way he crouches to pick up the tribble nearest him, scritching it gently before handing it reluctantly over to Clint.

“Fuck,” Steve says, after Clint has retreated into his quarters with the tribbles.

“Look, I’m sorry,” says Bucky.“I’ll help him make sure they’re all rounded up and - and -”

“It would be a lot easier if they weren’t cute,” Steve says, pinching the bridge of his nose.“Just - listen, maybe they’ve found a way to sterilize them by now.”

Bucky has never particularly been a morning person, but when he boards the turbolift the next morning, still stirring cream and sugar into his coffee, he feels even less awake than usual.Not, as Stark had so heavily implied the previous night, because he and Steve hooked up last night, but because he and Steve had stayed up in the corridor outside Bucky’s quarters, talking of everything and nothing until the middle of the graveyard shift, just as they had when they’d been in Starfleet Academy together.Steve’s complicity makes Bucky feel even more indignant when the turbolift stops halfway to Engineering to pick up Sam and Steve, irritatingly alert and joking with one another in workout gear.And why do they both have to be so attractive?

“Morning, Buck!” says Steve cheerily.

“Hey,” greets Sam, a friendly smile on his face.

“Ugh,” replies Bucky, and takes a swig of his coffee.

Steve claps Bucky on the shoulder as he exits in Engineering, but as the doors to the turbolift close Bucky can hear Sam saying,

“I thought you said you two _didn’t_ -”

This overheard snippet turns out to be enough for Stark, who leers suggestively.“Spent last night getting reacquainted, did you?” he says, with pointed emphasis.“Catching up on old times?Maybe he was briefing you on the current mission?”

Bucky, having finished his own coffee, plucks Stark’s mug right out of his hands and takes a swig.Stark apparently takes his coffee black, which is disgusting, but Bucky’s committed to the act of theft now.Never let it be said that he’s willing to back down from a challenge.

Stark makes grabby hands for the coffee and Bucky, in retaliation, holds the mug high above Stark’s head.

“Maybe you were showing him around your quarters?Letting him show you some of the _Avenger’s_ enhanced crew comfort features?”, Stark continues.“Oh no, can’t talk about recreational functions in front of Vision,” he interrupts himself, as Vision exits the turbolift.“He’s not old enough for that kind of thing yet.”

Vision lifts an eyebrow.“And yet, Ms. Maximoff and I have been dating for almost six months,” he says.

“Seriously, it’s like I’m the only single person around here,” Stark comments, a smile on his face.“Now, let’s start looking at what mix of stone we want to fill the cargo hold with for our upcoming guests.”

Bucky realizes that at no time did Stark bring up their interrupted conversation from yesterday about the deaths of his parents, a sign that he considers the matter resolved between them.And, sure, Bucky could have brought it up himself, and he can hear the voices of his Starfleet therapists telling him it’s unhealthy not to fully clear the air between them, but it’s so much less work to just pretend there isn’t any remaining tension.

“If we take a look at the reports from the mining colony, we should be able to dig something up,” says Bucky.Stark gives him a wry look and he realizes he’s inadvertently made a pun, but before Bucky can apologize, Stark says,

“We want to give them something gneiss.”

“I quite agree,” says Vision.“We wouldn’t want our guests thinking we’re taking them for granite.”

“It is way too early for this schist,” Bucky declares, then downs the rest of Stark’s coffee.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days out from Janus VI, Steve goes down to Engineering to find out if he can tour the habitat Tony and his team have been building for the Hortas.

“No can do, Cap, it’s solid rock,” says Tony.

“But we programmed this cool virtual walk-through for the holodeck!” adds Harley.

“You did?” asks Tony, looking delighted, and Harley and Peter nod.“Well, we better go take a look at it, then!Lead the way.”

So off to the holodeck they go, where the two cadets bring up their program.The terrain the group walks through is gently rolling, with subtle changes in air pressure, air temperature, and even air taste, with the ambient lighting changing from bright to diffuse and ranging in color and saturation levels, and the two cadets speak over one another in their enthusiasm to explain the different rock compositions the changes represent.

“This is really -” Steve begins.He means to say it’s ingenious, or well done, or thoroughly researched, but what comes out is, “- beautiful.”Well, it’s that, too.

“It was all Mr. Barnes’ idea, sir,” says Peter.

“Yeah?” says Steve, glancing over at Bucky, who ducks his head bashfully.

“And with this program, we should even be able to interact in real time with the Hortas once they’re inside their habitat,” Harley continues.

“That is - why didn’t I think of that?” Tony demands.“Well done, team, commendations for all.”

When the _Avenger_ arrives at Janus VI, Harley and Peter’s simulation is put to the test and Steve is not the only one who’s delighted by how well it works.Steve can see the two cadets congratulating each other out of the corner of his eye but he keeps the majority of his attention on the Hortas.Bucky and Clint are in the transporter room, ready to work directly with the controls if anything goes wrong, but most of the rest of the senior staff are standing by in the holodeck, ready to greet the Hortas.

The two master artists, Obehk and Vermud, are beamed in first, and Steve can see them looking around at their temporary quarters in evident satisfaction.In person, they’re much more expressive than they’d appeared in the movies the crew had tried to watch.

“Ah, Captain Rogers,” says Obehk, approaching Steve and performing the customary Horta greeting gestures.Steve does his best to reciprocate in his very non-Horta-shaped body.“These are outstanding guest quarters, thank you so much for your crew’s attention to our comfort for this voyage.”

“I’ll be sure to pass your thanks along,” Steve says.In the background he hears Tony telling Bucky and Clint in the transporter room to carry on with beaming the rest of the party aboard.

“Our children especially will appreciate the attention to detail,” says Vermud.“We’ve heard that most transports tend to construct quarters of solid granite for their Horta passengers, so the variety in diet and terrain will be very nice.”

As Vermud speaks, a group of Horta children are beamed into the quarters and Steve can see them racing around, dipping their pseudopods into as many different rock textures as they can find.

As Steve leaves the holodeck for the bridge, the Horta families are busy getting settled in to their new environments.Natasha offers to stay behind in the holodeck to help the new passengers if they have any questions about how to interact with FRIDAY or requisition supplies.

“You don’t think she thinks they’re some kind of security risk, do you?” Steve asks Sam in an undertone as they step out into the corridor.

“Nah,” says Sam, “couldn’t you tell?She thinks the babies are cute.”

“She does?” Steve asks, turning back for a last look as the doors to the holodeck close.Natasha is crouching down to speak to one of the children, a soft expression on her normally inscrutable face.

“Oh yeah,” says Sam.“And I’m totally going to tease her about it for the rest of the mission.”

“Your funeral,” laughs Steve.

Steve is enjoying a perfectly uneventful shift, skimming through the cadets’ civics essays and wondering whether he should invite Bucky to join him and Sam after their shift for another one of Sam’s regular efforts to get Steve caught up on the pop culture he missed in the last 70 years.He’s just taking a sip of his raktajino when seemingly every warning klaxon on the bridge goes off.Steve sits up straight, switching to the ops interface on his PADD.

“Status report,” he says.

“I’m showing multiple internal deck and bulkhead breaches leading away from Cargo Deck 4,” reports Natasha.

“Bridge to Engineering,” Steve says, even as he is getting out of his chair and heading for the turbolift.Natasha follows him.

“Yep, I’m seeing this,” Tony replies.

“What exactly are you seeing, Tony?” Natasha says.

“The…floor is lava…?” Tony replies hesitantly.

Tony’s cryptic report is only made clear when the turbolift stops to let Natasha and Steve off at deck 4, into the middle of barely-contained chaos.The klaxons are off, but the alarm lights are still flashing and the air is thick with fire-suppressant.Steve waves his hand in front of his face to clear the air, which allows him to see the red-hot edges of a Horta-sized hole in the bulkhead.The floor plates for at least a metre in front of the hole are buckled and dotted with glowing patches that appear to be dripping through to the deck below.Tony and Bucky are busy pointing tricorders at the ruined deck, and a couple of med-techs are charging through the opening with medkits in their hands.From somewhere a few decks off, there is the indistinct sound of an adult chiding and a child sounding unrepentant.

Steve and Natasha look at each other, then step carefully through the opening, phasers in hand.When they reach the end of the slightly molten pathway, it’s to find the two medtechs carefully spraying something over the Hortas.The adult, Steve thinks it’s Guiaht, submits to the procedure patiently but the two children vibrate with impatience.

“It’s teflon, sir,” explains one of the medtechs, gesturing to the spray.“Our atmosphere is corrosive for the Hortas if they spend too long exposed to it, and teflon has been found to be an effective short-term barrier.”

“Good,” nods Steve, glad the situation appears not to have created any casualties.

“You see?” says Guiaht to the two children.

“Mom,” one of the children objects, “we were just trying to play tag!”

“Yeah Mrs. Guiaht,” says the other one, “it’s boring being stuck in one cave all the time.”

“Better to be bored than corroded or spaced,” Guiaht says, extending a pseudopod to pat each of the children.“Now, I believe each of you owe an apology to Captain Rogers for the damage to his ship?”

As Steve accepts the children’ apologies, he glances up to find Bucky looking on with a smile on his face.“Remember that time we accidentally stowed away to Utopia Planitia?” he says.

“I thought you were going to see if Bucky wanted to join us,” Sam says later, when he shows up at Steve’s quarters.

“Are you sure you’re not psychic?” Steve asks suspiciously, even as he steps aside to let Sam in.He doesn’t remember having mentioned anything about his invitation plans to Sam or anyone else.And Sam is still his best friend, even if Bucky is - also his best friend.Steve can have two best friends, right?

“No, man, I can see it all over your face,” Sam says, nudging Steve gently with his elbow.“Go on, give him a call, I’ll start getting the food from the replicator.We were going to try Antarean tonight, right?”

And what if Steve wants Sam or Bucky, or Sam and Bucky, to be more than just his best friends?Which, if he’s going to be perfectly honest with himself, he does?It’s exactly the sort of thing he’s always been terrible at, which is why he hasn’t made any moves yet.What if he says something and completely ruins his friendship with both of them?Bucky can’t be looking for a romantic relationship this soon after breaking free from his parasite and the Romulans, and as far as he knows, Sam isn’t supposed to be looking for another romantic relationship at all after Riley’s death.

“_Steve_,” says Sam, and Steve can almost hear him rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, just a minute,” says Steve, but Sam forestalls any further hesitation by tapping his own communicator badge.

“Wilson to Barnes,” he says.

When Bucky answers he’s actually still in Engineering, and he says, with some hesitation in his voice, “Listen, I’d really love to, but we still have a whole bunch of cleanup and maintenance after the Horta kids’ little expedition today and -”

“Is that Rogers?” Steve hears Tony interrupt in the background.“Are you talking to Cap?”(“And Wilson!” Sam interjects.)When Bucky answers him in the affirmative, Tony says, “Oh, go on, have your date, Vision and I can handle this by ourselves.”

“But -” Bucky begins.

“You mean,” Vision interjects, “that Cadets Keener and Parker and I will handle this, while Commander Barnes has his date and you, Commander Stark, go to bed.”

~~

The rest of the flight to Wakanda is uneventful, but Natasha’s suspicions are raised when Steve elects not to assign a leader for the Away Team prior to the rest of the team assembling in the Transporter Room for beam down.She’s served with Steve long enough that she decides the best course of action is to assume he will choose to lead the Away Team himself, and to plan her security measures accordingly.She’s aware that if Steve decides to go someplace, it’s not going to matter to him whether the place is politically stable or in the middle of a full-blown civil war, but after reviewing the last several years of Wakanda’s current affairs, she’s satisfied that the security risk is probably very low.

Sure enough, when Natasha reports to the Transporter Room, Steve announces that he plans to lead the Away Team himself.And when he does, Sam shoots Natasha a long-suffering look and then steps between Steve and the transporter platform.

“Uh-uh,” he says, arms crossed.“No way.You think Will Riker lets Captain Picard lead away missions?Even to politically stable planets?”

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose.“We’re not Riker and Picard,” he tries.

“That’s true,” Natasha agrees.“Steve is much more of a Kirk than a Picard.”

Steve grins and Bucky disguises a snicker as a cough.

“Oh, for -” Sam begins, throwing his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender and ruffling his feathers.“Why do you always have to enable him?”

“Me?” asks Natasha, affecting an innocent expression.

Steve takes the distraction as an opportunity to step up to the transporter platform, but Sam intercepts him, taking him by both shoulders, and guiding him off the platform.

“I didn’t join Starfleet to _not_ explore strange new worlds,” grumbles Steve.

“Wakanda isn’t strange or new,” Sam counters, as he takes his position on the platform.“It’s been a full member of the Federation for 70 years.And haven’t you been here before?”

Steve’s face takes on a mulish expression.“Fine, you win this one,” he says, putting his hands up in surrender and stepping back to take position behind the transporter control panel.

“What do you mean, this one?” asks Sam, as Bucky says,

“Oh no you don’t!”

“Energizing,” Steve interrupts, and Natasha feels herself start to dematerialize.

Wakanda is beautiful, sunny, and warm, and the welcoming committee consists of King T’Challa himself, along with his sister Princess Shuri, Queen Mother Ramonda, and a handful of members of the King’s personal guard, the Dora Milaje along with their leader, General Okoye.With initial pleasantries out of the way, Bucky goes off with Princess Shuri to review and confirm the coordinates and accommodations for the Hortas.

Sam and Natasha are treated to a stroll around the palace district, with the remaining royals and Doras as their guides.There’s a mix of modern high-rise office buildings and low-rise adobe buildings the Queen Mother explains are in the style of the Earth city of Djenne, the port from which Wakanda’s initial settlers had left Earth in the late 21st century.Street-level traffic is mostly pedestrian and kiosks featuring local handicrafts nestle between the buildings.

“Shuri is the head of our Science and Information Exchange,” comments King T’Challa.“We may be royals, but we are not just figureheads here.We like to make sure we are contributing in a real way to the well-being of Wakanda’s people.”

“T’Challa contributes mainly by being a pain in my ass,” comments Okoye in an undertone to Natasha.

“Hey, now,” T’Challa chides her, but Natasha recognizes she may have found a kindred spirit.

“It’s a full-time job keeping them out of trouble,” she says, which earns her her own expression of disagreement from Sam.

“Commander Wilson, will your team need to beam back up right away, or would you be interested in a trip out to the proposed sculpture site?” asks T’Challa.

“What do you think?” Sam asks Natasha.

Exploring strange new worlds is not exactly why Natasha joined Starfleet, but it’s not exactly a drawback either.She’s already most of the way convinced when T’Challa says something guaranteed to make Sam, at least, want to stay a while longer:

“We can take a flight out over the plain tomorrow, the views are fantastic.”

“That sounds great, Your Majesty,” says Sam, and the King says,

“T’Challa, please.We don’t stand on ceremony here.”

After Bucky and Shuri rejoin them, T’Challa leads them to a public viewscreen where they can call up to the _Avenger_.Bucky and Natasha crowd in next to Sam, who plans to do most of the talking, and T’Challa and Shuri lean in so they, too, can join the call.

“Go ahead,” says Steve, when the proposed overnight stay is explained to him, “that won’t put us behind schedule.”

“That is, unless you have any urgent security matters you need me to attend to,” says Natasha.

There’s a noise suspiciously like a tribble chittering, and Lieutenant Maximoff (Pietro) goes diving for the deck, disappearing from the frame.

“Nope, everything’s under control,” Steve says, and Cadet Leeds, on comms, helpfully pans the camera away from the nav and helm stations.Natasha makes a mental note to tease Steve later about his painful inability to lie, but for now, there’s an interesting away mission to complete.

“Carry on, then,” she says, and reaches out to terminate the commlink.


	3. Chapter 3

As the call from Wakanda ends, Lieutenant Maximoff (Wanda) stares studiously at her nav console and not at her brother, who is simultaneously settling himself back into his chair and stuffing something, presumably a tribble, into his uniform jacket.When Steve turns around to check on the rest of the Bridge crew,Cadet Jones is looking intently at something on her PADD and Cadet Leeds is attempting to give the impression that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.Right.So Steve’s part in this is to keep pretending he doesn’t know about the tribble infestation.He can do this.He can also make some subtle inquiries later to find out whether the tribbles have been sterilized or whether they’re still multiplying.

On the other hand, Steve has never been very good at doing nothing at all, which is what the balance of his bridge shift will consist of now that the _Avenger_ is in orbit around Wakanda.He checks in with Wanda and Pietro about the status of their orbit, twice.He calls down to Engineering to check on engine status and power levels, twice.He checks the cadets’ course work, but he’s up to date on reviewing their assignments.He reviews the _Avenger_’s standing orders, but of course, nothing has changed and an overnight stay at Wakanda is well within their parameters.As he draws breath to ask the Maximoffs for a third time about their orbit, he notices them exchanging glances and decides he doesn’t need to bother them again.Which leaves him with nothing productive to do except sort through all the low-priority communiques he’s been letting accumulate in his in-box.Scheduled dates of maintenance cycles and supply deliveries at Starbase 616; a job opening in the JAG’s office; a one-day seminar on Respect in the Inter-Species Workplace on Tellar Prime; a request for input on Form -

“Sir?” interrupts Ned.“Captain - Steve?”

Steve looks up, grateful for the interruption.“Yes?”

“Incoming message from the Away Team, sir,” says Ned.

“On screen,” says Steve, even as he feels a brief spike of alarm.Has something gone wrong since they last spoke?

The orbital view of Wakanda is replaced on the main view screen by an image of Sam, together with King T’Challa and Princess Shuri.At this, Ned and MJ straighten up to attention at their stations.

“Everything okay?” Steve asks.

Sam looks toward King T’Challa, who greets Steve.Steve still can’t tell whether the call is good news or bad news.

“Captain, this is Princess Shuri, the Head of Wakanda Science and Information Exchange,” says the King.

“Ma’am,” Steve acknowledges.He’d seen her briefly on the last call.

“I’d like to take a tour of your ship,” says Shuri.

Steve feels himself breathing easier.It’s a straightforward request, easy to grant.He firms up the details of Shuri’s transport to the _Avenger_ and closes the communication.

As Steve heads toward the turbolift, MJ and Ned fall into formation behind him.

“I don’t remember calling for you two to come along,” he tells them, after ordering the turbolift to the Transporter Room.

“It’s an important part of our officer training, sir,” MJ states.

Steve raises one eyebrow.He’s all for enabling junior officers getting as much experience as possible, but one important part of officer training is being able to successfully state one’s case.

“MJ thinks the princess is cute,” says Ned.

MJ declines to acknowledge Ned’s contribution, saying instead, “We can apply it against our intra-Federation diplomacy course credits.”

“Well, I’m convinced,” Steve says.He suspects there is much more of the former than the latter, but there’s no harm in adding the cadets to the welcome party.

In the Transporter Room, he finds Tony, together with Cadets Bishop, Chavez, Keener, and Parker.Peter is sitting on top of the transporter console, while America, Kate, and Harley lounge against the wall. Tony is missing his uniform jacket and holding a grease-stained coffee cup.

Steve gives them all his best “The Captain is Disappointed in You” look.

Kate and America stand up a little straighter.“We’re here as security detail,” America explains.

“What about Barton?” Steve asks, although he suspects he knows the answer.

Sure enough, Kate and America exchange complicit looks.

“He, uh, has a thing,” says Kate.

“Several things, really,” adds America.

“And would these things be about one kilo each and fuzzy?” Steve asks.

Kate and America have the grace to look even guiltier.Guilty is a look Peter wears often, but if Steve’s not mistaken he is looking even a little guiltier than usual.He stifles a sigh.The tribbles will have to be a problem for another day.Hopefully, a problem he can convince Natasha to deal with, since he can’t quite bring himself to be as ruthless as he needs to about them.Out loud, he says,

“We’re greeting a princess.Let’s at least try to look organized and official.”

All six cadets immediately come to some semblance of attention, and Steve exchanges a look with Tony, who shrugs.It’s as good as they’re probably going to get.

“Energize,” Steve orders.

~~

The away team and their Wakandan escort, reach the village that will be hosting them overnight just in time to watch a spectacular sunset over the plain.The villagers have prepared a sumptuous feast of local dishes, and the entire group, Away Team, Doras, villagers, and the King, sits down to eat at a long table under the darkening sky.The conversation ranges from Wakandan history to the recent adventures of the _Avenger_’s crew to the symbolism of the sculpture the Hortas are there to create, with breaks for pointing out which star in the night sky is Sol and for debating which of the many fast-moving satellites directly above them may be the _Avenger_.

As the meal is winding to a close, the Away Team’s communicators chirp with an incoming message from Steve.Sam makes eye contact with Bucky and Natasha, and then the three of them excuse themselves from the table.As Sam is stepping away, the King reaches out to stop him.

“We aim to take off tomorrow morning around 0500 hours.We have flight suits engineered by my sister, but I assume you may be able to join us without any technological assistance?”

Sam grins.“0500 is fine, and I look forward to stretching my own wings.”Of course he exercises his wings on the holodeck, but there’s nothing quite like taking flight in a real atmosphere.

When Sam joins Natasha and Bucky, the conversation is already under way.Steve is reassuring Natasha that everything is under control, which Sam is a hundred percent certain is code for “tribbles have overrun the Bridge.”

“Okay, great,” says Natasha.“I’ll leave the boys to bring you up to date on everything else.”She pats Sam and Bucky on the shoulders and excuses herself to return to the table, a satisfied expression on her face.

Steve updates Sam and Bucky on the successful transport of the Horta artists to their quarters on Wakanda and the visit of Princess Shuri to the _Avenger_ \- apparently she has made fast friends with the cohort of cadets.Then he prods them to tell him about the trip out to the village, the meal, the view.Sam can see easily enough what’s happening, and he keeps trying to excuse himself so Steve and Bucky can have a bit of a private chat, but somehow both Steve and Bucky keep coming up with reasons for him to stay in the conversation, and before Sam knows it, almost 30 minutes have elapsed on the comm.

It’s still pleasantly warm in the night air, and a chorus of insects is singing, but it’s probably past time to turn in if they want to be well-rested for their early flight tomorrow.Sam follows Bucky into the hut they’ve been assigned, then runs straight into him when he stops short.He’s put his hands up instinctively to stop himself, which would give him a good chance to appreciate how well-muscled Bucky is, if he wasn’t busy trying to determine what the threat is. 

He’s imagining some form of venomous arthropod, or maybe one of the goats he saw wandering free in the village, but when he asks, “Whoa, what’s wrong?” the answer he gets from Bucky is,

“There’s, uh, only one bed.”

Sam steps to one side and waits for his vision to adjust in the low light of the hut.As had been the case in the capital, where the Away Team had beamed down, elements of modern technology are blended harmoniously with hand-crafted design elements drawn from the traditions of the many African nations Wakanda’s settlers had come from.A comms charging station is built into a shelf hanging from the wall; a boldly-patterned blue and white blanket hides a refresher unit; and yes, there it is, the only bed.

Sam and Bucky are Starfleet officers.They’ve trained for accommodation conditions much more minimal than this.Hell, when Sam was on the front during the Cardassian War, he slept huddled up with the rest of his unit in caves, or sometimes even out in the open shielded by nothing but a few tree branches piled together.

But.

That had been when Riley was still alive.

Sam hasn’t shared sleeping space with anyone since then.

And, for reasons of his own, Bucky seems equally averse to sharing a bed with Sam.

“I’ll take the ground,” Sam says immediately.

“No, no, you’re the ranking officer, I’ll take the ground,” says Bucky.

After a few exchanges of polite verbal fencing, it becomes clear that Bucky has no intention of letting Sam take the ground.Sam can at least try one further concession though:

“Or we could share,” he offers.

“That won’t bother you?” Bucky asks, not quite meeting his eye.

It will, but not as much as letting a friend and fellow officer sleep on the ground when a perfectly good half a bed is available.“Do you want the left side or the right side?” asks Sam, gesturing at the bed.

Sleep doesn’t come as quickly as Sam hoped.Put him in a combat zone and he can drop off to sleep any time he has a few spare moments away from the active fire.Ask him to stay overnight in safe but unfamiliar quarters and he’s suddenly wide awake, shifting awkwardly in the objectively very comfortable bed because his subconscious tells him it’s not a proper nest and it’s not high enough off the ground.And the man at his back is - not Riley.

Sam shifts once more, trying to wedge the pillow under his neck more effectively, and as though in response Bucky sits up to reposition his own pillow.

“Sorry, I’m not keeping you awake, am I?” Sam says.

“I thought I might be keeping you awake,” Bucky returns.

“No, I can’t sleep,” Sam says, at the same time as Bucky says,

“I’m just thinking about - things.”

That seems to be all he’s prepared to say, and Sam wonders if maybe - “Hey, sorry I didn’t leave you any time to chat privately with Steve tonight,” he says.

“You - what?” asks Bucky.Whatever he was expecting Sam to say, that doesn’t seem to have been it.

“Or are you two still dancing around each other like teenagers?” Sam says.

There’s an awkwardly long pause.Then Bucky says, “I kind of thought you two were seeing each other?”

Now it’s Sam who lets the silence stretch out awkwardly.It’s a possibility he has been carefully not letting himself think about ever since Bucky reappeared unexpectedly two years ago.Steve had been the first person since Riley that Sam could see himself dating, but,

“No, I’m not the kind of guy to get in the middle of an established relationship,” he says.

Bucky snorts inelegantly and rolls onto his back.“What relationship?” he asks.

Sam hesitates again, then sits up, stretching his wings out behind him over the edge of the bed.Apparently neither of them is going to sleep any time soon, so they might as well talk this out.“The way he talks about the two of you, when you were serving together on the _Howling Commando_ \- “

“Oh no, we were just friends.He had a thing going with Commander Carter,” Bucky replies.

“You mean Fleet Admiral Carter?” Sam blurts.“Margaret Carter?”She had retired by the time Sam was at Starfleet Academy, but there were plenty of professors and senior officers remaining who had tales of Admiral Carter and her terrifying competence.

“Yeah,” says Bucky.“Pretty hard to compete with someone like her.”

That may have been the case back in the 23rd century, thinks Sam, but the way he’s noticed Steve looking at Bucky over the weeks since he joined the _Avenger_’s crew, well, those are not merely the looks of a man for someone he merely considers a friend.

“I’m pretty sure you measure up,” Sam tells him.

“Now, wait a minute!” says Bucky, sitting up to glare at Sam.In the dim light his expression carries a faint echo of the menace it had when Sam encountered him as the Winter Soldier,but mostly he just looks sad and resigned.“What was that you were saying about not getting in the middle of a relationship?Because I’m not that kind of guy either.”

Sam sees everything about this evening, the last several weeks, everything since the mission against the Bluegills on Earth, come rapidly into focus.Why Steve has been inviting Sam and Bucky to all of his dinner and media catch-up sessions, why both Steve and Bucky have been resisting Sam’s efforts to let them spend time together without him.

“We’re a couple of idiots, aren’t we?” he says.

Bucky slumps.“Probably,” he agrees.Then he sits up again, scrutinizing Sam.“Wait, what do you mean?Who’re you calling an idiot?”

“Myself, mostly,” Sam grins.

“Obviously,” Bucky agrees wryly, lying back down again.“So, why are we idiots?”

“About Steve,”says Sam.

“So you’re saying, what, we try to share?”

Sam thinks about the times over the last several weeks that the three of them have already spent together.Adding in an element of romance - it honestly wouldn’t have changed that much.“I can if you can,” he says.

Bucky lets his gaze turn assessing, looking Sam appreciatively up and down.“Yeah, I think I can live with that,” he grins.

“In that case,” says Sam, “Do you mind if we lie back down like this?”He lowers himself back to the mattress and pulls Bucky in so they’re spooned up back to front, spreading one wing over the both of them in place of a blanket.It’s much more comfortable than trying to sleep back to back, or trying to pretend that they’re not going to touch each other, and in addition he can almost feel Bucky letting go of the tension he’d previously been carrying around.

“S’perfect,” he murmurs sleepily, and Sam thinks he may agree.

~~

Someone is shaking Bucky by the shoulder and calling his name.His body snaps instantly awake, sitting up in the bed and reaching for a knife that’s not there.It’s not quite light out yet and there’s something in his mouth - not a bite guard or a muzzle, something fluffy? He tries to spit it out but it sticks to his tongue.

“Hey, Bucky, are you with me?” says a voice.It’s Sam’s voice.Right.Because Bucky is on a perfectly normal, safe away mission to a Federation planet where the only danger is agreeing to date his commanding officer.Officers.

“Yes,” he tries to say, but there’s still something in his mouth.

Sam chuckles.“Hold still,” he says.He keeps one hand on Bucky’s shoulder and with the other hand reaches up to pull the thing out of Bucky’s mouth.It’s a big, fluffy down feather.

“Aw fuck,” Bucky mutters.

“Just a few more,” says Sam, and then he’s gently pulling more down out of Bucky’s hair.Bucky shivers involuntarily - he can’t remember the last time he was touched with such tenderness.Maybe this sharing thing can actually work.

“Sorry, I should have warned you.I always moult a bit when I’m sleeping,” says Sam.

Bucky is finally alert enough to start asking questions.“What’s going on?Why are we waking up?”

“Pre-dawn flight!” grins Sam.He hands Bucky his uniform jacket and Bucky pulls it on.

“Why-y?” asks Bucky, drawing the question out.

“Apparently that’s when the best thermals are on Wakanda,” says Sam.

“Thermals,” Bucky repeats.

“Yeah, so we can get more altitude and better dives,” Sam explains, and grins even wider.

“I don’t have wings,” Bucky objects.

Sam stands up, offering Bucky a hand to get to his feet.“You can come with me, the King brought me a flight suit with a special harness.”

“Uh,” Bucky prevaricates.

“Or you can try one of the Dora Milaje’s Midnight Angel suits,” Sam continues.He ushers Bucky out of the hut toward the edge of the cliff and there stand King T’Challa and two Doras, suited up in shimmering blue lightly-armoured flight suits with semi rigid wings.

“I haven’t even had any coffee yet,” grumbles Bucky, but he nonetheless submits patiently to being buckled in to the flight harness.He’s awake enough to decide that the flight will be an exciting experience, but it’s definitely too early in the morning for him to figure out his own flight suit.

“Ready?” says Sam, giving one last tug on the harness straps.Bucky gives a thumbs-up and the three Wakandans give answering affirmative signals before lifting off.

Sam spreads his wings out to their full span and with a couple of powerful wingbeats, they’re suddenly airborne.As the ground drops rapidly away beneath them, Sam shouts,

“I hope you don’t get air sick!”

“Nah, not me,” Bucky replies.

“Oh good,” says Sam, “because I found out the hard way that Steve does.”

~~

Natasha pours herself a tea and takes a seat, watching the early-morning aviators coming in to land.

“Try the mandazi,” suggests Okoye, taking a seat on the bench next to her and sliding a basket of freshly-fried fritters towards her.

Natasha picks out one of the fritters and inspects it, saying, “You didn’t go flying with the King this morning?”

Okoye laughs, her eyes crinkling.“Oh no,” she says, “He has enough Doras with him to keep him out of trouble for the time being.Here, it’s best with caramel sauce,” she adds, pulling a dish of sauce closer and dipping a fritter of her own into it.

“Keeps you on your toes, does he?” she asks.

“Oh yes,” says Okoye, and she launches into a story as Natasha gingerly tastes her fritter.Human food is often a little bland for her tastes, but some of the stews on offer last night had been tasty enough.

The risks Okoye relates that King T’Challa took with his physical safety during Wakanda’s recent transition to a constitutional monarchy are not unlike the kinds of risks Steve likes to take.

When Okoye is done her story, Natasha decides that enough of the mission to uncover the joint Bluegill/Romulan infiltration of Starfleet is now a matter of public record that she can share with Okoye some of the more egregious risks Steve and Sam took in the course of saving the day.

“Ah, it is very nice to find someone whose charge is equally reckless as my own,” says Okoye when Natasha is finished her story.

“Likewise,” Natasha smiles, and sips her tea.

“Tell me, is yours completely clueless about romance, too?”

Natasha watches as Sam and Bucky come in to land, windswept and laughing.They disentangle themselves from each other but make their way toward the breakfast table joking with one another and getting in each other’s space.She hopes this time Steve hasn’t been disastrously clueless.

“Oh, do tell,” she encourages Okoye.

~~

Steve is just getting settled in to his Bridge shift when the call comes in from the Away Team.

“We’re finished down here, Captain,” says Sam over the comms.

Steve is up and out of his chair and halfway to the turbolift before he can finish the rest of the conversation.He signals for Barton to take the Bridge and for Princess Shuri and Cadets Jones and Leeds to accompany him to the Transporter Room.

“You seem very eager to get rid of me, Captain,” comments Shuri, grinning.

“No, he’s eager to get Barnes and Wilson back,” says MJ.

Steve frowns, and MJ puts her hands behind her back and gives him a challenging look.

“I’m sure other cadets don’t give their COs this much trouble,” Steve comments.He remembers being just as much of a challenge to his COs when he was a cadet, but his cadets don’t need to know that.

In the Transporter Room, Shuri suddenly stalls, looking around at MJ, Peter, and the other cadets.

“Captain,” she says, “May I stay on board?”

Steve considers.It would be a bit unusual to have a planetary dignitary aboard for an indefinite period of time, but the _Avenger_ is set up to ferry diplomats from place to place, even if that’s not normally the kind of mission she’s given.

“She can stay in our quarters,” says Kate.

“Yeah, we have a fourth bunk,” adds America.

MJ nods, and Steve begins to suspect Shuri’s request isn’t as spur-of-the-moment as it had first seemed.

“We’ll see,” he says.He’s torn between chastising the cadets for manipulating the situation and praising them for their teamwork and initiative.

Peter gives Steve his best pleading puppy expression.

“It’s a matter of ship’s security and diplomatic safety, so we’ll have to see if Commander Romanoff and General Okoye agree,” Steve says.

When Sam, Bucky, and Natasha beam up, they, too, look like they’re up to some kind of plot, but before Steve can deal with that he’d better call back down to Wakanda.

He and Natasha call Okoye from his Ready Room, and she calls in T’Challa and Queen Mother Ramonda to join the call.Steve does his best to project an air of calm and competence that says he is responsible enough to look after the heir apparent to an entire planet.This would be more successful if a tribble didn’t bounce out from the replicator half way through the call, but Natasha dives after it and the three Wakandans seem to graciously ignore its appearance.

Steve returns to his quarters to find a message from Sam and Bucky to join them in Sam’s quarters.He briefly considers calling Natasha to help him pick something to wear, but then tells himself he’s being presumptuous.Why would he think this was something beyond an ordinary movie night, of which they’ve had so many?Still, he takes extra care choosing an outfit and fixing his hair before heading down the corridor to Sam’s quarters.

Bucky answers the door, wearing the skinny dark trousers he favours with a silk shirt that somehow manages to be the exact color of his eyes.Steve’s mouth goes dry and he’s suddenly lost for words.Bucky smiles a million-watt smile and gives Steve a carefully-telegraphed hug before ushering him further into the room.

The lighting is low and flickering with simulated candlelight, and Sam is carrying a bowl of something delicious-looking from the replicator to the table.His outfit is similar to Bucky’s, but his shirt is a deep red that matches his wings.Once he’s done setting the table, he too comes around to give Steve a hug.

“What’s going on here?” Steve asks.The answer seems fairly obvious, but in the past he hasn’t exactly been known for his romantic successes.

Sam releases him from the hug, but he and Bucky stay standing close to Steve, one on either side of him.

“You see,” begins Sam, “we got to talking when we were down on Wakanda,”

“And it turns out that both humans and Gennaians like to signal our romantic interest in someone by sharing a meal with them,” continues Bucky.

“Uh huh,” Steve agrees intelligently.He’d also thought that Gennaians believed in mating for life, but maybe it’s better not to ask too many questions about that right now.

“So we have a meal we’d like to share with you,” says Sam, his voice laden with meaning.

Steve looks between Bucky and Sam, both smiling at him.“Both of you?” he asks.

“Well, both of us like you,” begins Bucky, and Sam adds,

“And we like each other, so we thought we should give it a try.”

“That is, if you’re interested in us,” Bucky finishes.

Steve considers, but he doesn’t have to think about it very long.This is something he’d been hoping for, even as he’d assumed it would never happen.

“Sounds great,” he says.

Sam takes his hand, and both Bucky and Sam step in to kiss him on the cheek.Yeah, this could definitely work out.

~~****

Natasha shows up at ten minutes to midnight to relieve Clint on the Bridge.He, Pietro, Wanda, and Vision are the only ones on shift, unless Natasha were to count the nest of tribbles occupying the first officer’s chair.

“Anything to report?” she asks.

“Nah, it was a pretty quiet shift.We’re still on course for Starbase 616,” says Clint.

Natasha nudges the tribbles to one side and sits down.

“Wilson and Cap never checked in,” Clint continues, and Wanda and Vision give each other a significant look.

“Interesting,” says Natasha.It’s not against protocol for the Captain and First Officer not to check in when they’re off shift, but it’s unusual for Steve and Sam not to do so.“FRIDAY, where’s Captain Rogers?”

“Steve is in Commander Wilson’s quarters,” FRIDAY replies.

Even more interesting.Natasha had thought after their stay on Wakanda that Sam and Bucky had started a relationship.“Where’s Commander Wilson?” she asks.

“Sam is also in his quarters,” says FRIDAY.

“Where’s Commander Barnes?” Wanda asks.

“Bucky is also in Commander Wilson’s quarters,” says FRIDAY, “and it’s about time, too.”

Ah, yes.That makes sense.Humans and Gennaians still tend to form relationships composed of only two people, but Natasha had been hoping that the three of them might figure out that they could all make each other happy.

Pietro shoots a triumphant look at Clint.“You owe me fifty credits, old man,” he says.

Clint tosses a tribble at him.

“It’s good to see Starfleet regulations being followed so closely on this Bridge,” says Natasha.“No gambling, no gossiping about the crew, no disrespect of higher-ranking officers, and certainly no invasive species.”For emphasis, she picks up a tribble, and it purrs.Shit.It really is difficult to find the emotional detachment necessary to eliminate them.

“That’s us,” agrees Clint, sitting back in the command chair.“Pride of the Fleet.Oh,” he adds, as he answers a notification that lights up on the chair’s console, “yeah, Sam?”

There’s a pause over the comms, then, “It’s, uh, Steve, actually.”

“Everything okay, Cap?” Clint asks.

“Just checking in,” says Steve.In the background, Natasha can hear Sam whispering,

“Do you think they’ll figure it out?”

“Everything’s under control, gentlemen,” says Natasha, addressing all three of them just so she can have the pleasure of hearing Bucky whispering,

“Fuck, we’ve been made,” and Steve hissing back,

“You two were supposed to keep quiet!”

“Relax and enjoy the rest of your evening,” says Natasha.“We can keep things running up here until morning shift.”

“Oh, we will,” Sam assures her, and he shuts off the comm.

**Author's Note:**

> For this universe’s version of the Hydra reveal and Winter Soldier plot, please see the Season 1 Star Trek: the Next Generation episode “Conspiracy”, but imagine it with Steve and Sam and Natasha instead of Picard and Riker, and with more Romulans pulling the strings behind the scenes. The “superior life forms” in this episode are never named on screen, but after much digging on the internet it seems that the fandom has agreed they are called “Bluegills”.
> 
> For more on Hortas, please see the Original Series episode “Devil in the Dark”.
> 
> For this universe’s version of Wakanda, I drew on the Black Panther movie, and the Black Panther comic runs “Flags of our Fathers”, “A Nation Under our Feet”, and “Avengers of the New World”. I wanted to do so much more with it than I had the space for in my current writing schedule, and I hope to come back to it in the new year.
> 
> I wasn’t able to find any canonical Star Trek aliens who are humanoid but with bird wings, so Sam’s planet and species Gennaia are just plain made up.
> 
> Visit me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ladivvinatravestia), where my asks box is always open to prompts.


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